


Wings of Paper, Hearts of Steel

by Yrindor



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Libraries, Magic, Monsters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22611094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: Nellie has made a name for herself by being the librarian who provides her wife's monster hunting crew with the answers they needbeforethey even know they need them.  The arrangement has worked out just fine until now, but when her wife's crew suddenly find themselves facing an evil sorcerer's enchanted library, they realize it needs a more personal touch.
Relationships: Librarian/Monster Hunter Wife Who Keeps Dragging Her Into Supernatural Adventures
Comments: 10
Kudos: 24
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Wings of Paper, Hearts of Steel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Prinzenhasserin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prinzenhasserin/gifts).



The phone rang.

The librarian startled awake. She fumbled for the receiver, nearly knocking over her water bottler in the process. "Westwood County Public Library. This is Nellie speaking."

"It's 2am! Go home!"

"Flora?" Nellie mumbled. "I will when you do." She rubbed her eyes and fumbled for wherever she'd left her glasses. Hopefully she hadn't broken them in her sleep again

"About that...there's been a...minor technical difficulty."

Nellie sighed. Not that it was really a surprise, her wife wouldn't be calling in the middle of the night if everything was fine. "What's up, Flora?"

"So you know how we were supposed to take out the evil sorcerer?"

"The one by the Dark Forest, right? The one everyone said was causing trouble in the moors?"

"Yeah! That's the one. Anyway, he went down nice and easy. By which I mean he tried to turn himself into a cloud of smoke and slip past us, but that's the oldest trick in the book, so now we have one entire evil sorcerer in a triple-spelled bottle ready to hand over to the county mages tomorrow!"

"So what's the problem?" Nellie asked. At least on the surface, everything seemed to be under control.

"Well...it turns out the sorcerer had a library, and it's giving us a little--Stay back!" The phone clattered to the ground as the next several seconds filled with the sounds of shouting and clashing metal. "Sorry about that," Flora said, slightly out of breath as she picked up the line again. "Probably should've suspected it, but his library's as nasty a piece of work as he was. Took five minutes to cut Finnie free from the trap they sprung. Figured if anyone knows libraries, it's you. Think you could lend a hand?"

"I can be there in ten minutes. How many books are we talking about?"

"No idea. A lot, but not as many as you have there."

Nellie set the phone on speaker, continuing with her rapid-fire questioning as she rushed around grabbing anything she thought she might need. "How many bookshelves then? How tall are they? Are there books on the ends of the stacks, or just in the aisles? How many books per shelf? What are they made of? Books shelved spine out or cover out?"

"Slow down," Flora laughed. "I have no idea, but I'll try to have some answers by the time you get here, okay? Someone will meet you out front. If there's no one there, don't come in. It could mean we've run into trouble; this place is filthy with traps. Oh, and drive safely. Fog's rolling in down here."

The line went dead, leaving Nellie in abrupt silence as she finished shoving things into her backpack--first aid kit, water bottle, notebook and pencil, granola bars, the ever-versatile bandana, flashlight, spare batteries, portable fire extinguisher, several yards of twill tying tape, her trusty microspatula, extra-large absorbent pad for emergencies...she racked her brain trying to thing of anything she was forgetting. As much as she'd like to take her barcode scanner, there probably wouldn't be anything to plug it into on the other side. Worst case, she could always use her phone.

Oh! A map! She'd read enough books to know that you should _never_ start an adventure without a map. Luckily, she already had one out on the desk, and she hadn't even spilled coffee on it or anything. She'd already memorized the location of the castle, the three best routes to get there depending on time of day and weather conditions, and the surrounding terrain. She had a role to uphold as her wife's official source of on-the-fly answers after all. She liked to think she deserved at least _some_ of the credit for her wife's crew being named Most Efficient in the Tri-State Area for five consecutive seasons.

She'd never been invited to go along on one of their jobs in person though! Usually she stayed back in the library with her reference collection and databases at the ready waiting for the phone to ring. This was exciting! She nearly skipped out of the building before she caught herself. This was serious business. Flora wouldn't have asked her to come into the danger zone in person unless she had to.

What sort of books had the sorcerer owned to make the situation this serious? Nellie had seen, or at least heard about, her fair share of cursed, poisoned, and otherwise booby trapped books in her time, but so had Flora. Maybe the sorcerer would have something unique and fantastic enough she could finally finish the paper she'd been wanting to publish for years! "Attacked in the Archives: What to Do When Books Bite Back." Wouldn't that be a title for a poster presentation at the midwinter conference.

Her car was right where she'd left it in the parking lot. Not that she expected it to be anywhere else; Westwood wasn't like the big cities where cars sometimes wandered off overnight.

She tossed her backpack onto the passenger seat and pulled out of the parking lot onto the empty roads. That was another way to tell you weren't in the city anymore; all of the shops in Westwood closed by about eight. Even the late-night restaurants were shutting down by ten, and after midnight, it was rare to meet another car on the road.

It was just as well she didn't meet anyone else on the way, especially once she made it off of the main road and onto the bumpy offshoot that led down to the moors. Flora hadn't been kidding about the fog rolling in. Even with her headlights set for fog, she could barely see the road in front of her. She found herself relying on the map on her phone as much as her eyes to follow the road; it was too small and infrequently traveled to have proper lines or reflectors, or even a shoulder.

She didn't realize how tense she was until the manor finally loomed into view and she pulled down the driveway. She turned off the car, and her shoulders protested when she finally dropped them down from her ears. It wasn't just the fog making the drive tricky. Flora always said there was nothing but superstition behind it, but Nellie had read enough books where sorcerers' familiars and necromancers' dark creatures took advantage of heavy fog to ambush the unsuspecting. The manor might be dangerous too, but at least it was a familiar sort of danger.

"Nellie, you made it! I was starting to worry!" Flora said. "Come on; I'll fill you in on the way. The library's up on the top floor, so we'll have a minute. It should be safe enough to get there. We've already cleared the rest of the house; just look out for anything loose. I don't trust some of the floors; the guy clearly didn't believe in basic upkeep."

"If he tried to turn into a cloud of smoke on you, then maybe he didn't need to," Nellie said as they crossed the threshold. The abandoned manor was everything she'd imagined it would be. It looked exactly like the sort of place she'd heard described in book after book, right down to the suit of armor in the hallway and the portraits whose eyes seemed to follow her down the hall. It was as exciting as it was nerve-wracking.

"To answer your questions from earlier, the library's about the size of your main reading room. Three rows of shelves in the center of the room, plus additional shelves around all four walls. Freestanding shelves are wood. Shelves on the outer wall appear to be stone, but I didn't have a chance to study them too closely. One door along the long wall; two large windows opposite with heavy grates on them. If there's a secret door hidden anywhere, we haven't found it yet. Most of the books are packed pretty tightly onto the shelves, but some especially large ones are on stands facing out at the ends of each row. They're like your dictionary stands, except the books are chained to them. Finnie brushed up against one accidentally and ended up wrapped up in what we think were giant spiderwebs. They're fine, but we're keeping them out of the way to be safe."

"What do you need me to do?" Nellie asked. She might be the undisputed queen of libraries, but when it came to fieldwork and potentially haunted castles, her wife was the boss.

"Three goals," Flora said. "First, see if you can find a way around the aggressive guard books. Second, take a quick scan of the shelves for anything especially valuable or potentially dangerous. We'll be turning the place over to the police force as soon as they arrive, and they appreciate a heads up on that sort of thing. Third, we still haven't located the sorcerer's focus. We're almost certain he has one, and given that this is the most heavily warded place in the house, and where he tried to retreat to when we cornered him, we think it's in here somewhere. Unless the Mage Council wants to be swarmed with his animations later, we need to find it. Any spells he anchored there will stay active even if he's not around to control them."

Nellie crouched down with her backpack. It sounded like it was time for some rearranging. Her tools wouldn't do her much good if they were buried somewhere in her bag when she needed them, would they? Once she was ready, she stood up and stretched out. Her entire spine cracked, and she winced at how loud it sounded in the silent confines of the hall.

"A kiss for luck?" she asked. "And how many of you are in there anyway?"

"Just me and Finnie right now. Marco and Altea are down in the basement sealing off the workrooms until we can get a hazmat team in to clear them. Mei and John were up here, but we figured it was safer to send them out once we discovered the traps. Mei's in charge of the sorcerer-in-a-bottle until she can hand it off. John's her backup.

Flora opened the door to the library.

Nellie stepped inside, immediately awed by the collection. Hers might be bigger, but it didn't carry the same _weight_. The smell of old leather and ink, and the weight of knowledge in the massive, hand-copied tomes that filled the room. Mass market paperbacks might be cheaper, and they served the needs of her patrons better than these ever could, but there was a certain power here that made something deep inside her ache. The books called to her, tempting her with whispered questions and the promises of answers she never could have dreamed of. They beckoned her to come closer, to let her fingers linger over their thick pages, to be drawn deeper into their world.

She shook off their siren call. Focus. "Don't listen to them," she gasped as adrenaline rushed through her veins. Not even thirty seconds in and already they'd tried to trick her.

"Listen to what?" Flora asked.

"The books. Don't you hear them?"

Flora looked at her, concern furrowing her brow. "No. Finnie, you hear anything?"

"Just the ringing in my ears," they replied with a crooked smile from where they sat propped up by one of the windows. "Word of advice from me--if the books do jump you, watch out for the floor. Stone's a lot harder than paper."

"So noted," Nellie said, though in her opinion anyone who thought that had never had an entire shelf of encyclopedias try to come crashing down on their head when a shelf bracket gave out.

She stepped forward more cautiously. It was too easy to be distracted by the individual books laid out on pedestals, or the ornate spines peppered throughout the shelves. That wouldn't help her with the big picture.

The shelves were as Flora had described. At first glance, the most ornate volumes seemed to be clustered in the one shelf at the middle of the room. If she had to guess, she'd peg those for the rarest volumes in the collection. If there were traps, they'd probably be focused there.

On the other hand, the books on the far shelf of the left-hand wall weren't flush with the edge of the shelf, and some were standing at slight angles as if the books next to them had been removed or rearranged. Those would be the high use materials. That section deserved a second look too.

"Flora, give me a hand here? I'm going in. You come at the center aisle from the other side; we'll see if we can catch them off guard."

"Be careful, Nellie. We don't know what they can do. I should stay with you; I know how to fight."

Nellie brandished her flashlight and microspatula. "I know books. I think I can handle them. I don't want them disappearing out the other side or something; stacks like these can mess around with spacetime even when they _aren't_ in a sorcerer's lair."

Flora sighed. "Fine, but let the record show I still don't like it. I'll signal when I'm in place. Don't get too close; we don't know their range."

Her headlamp bobbed off across the room, disappearing as she turned past the end of the stacks.

Nellie waited, sizing up her approach. The larger of the two books guarding her row was about thirty inches high. Estimating from that, it's chain was just over a meter long. She wouldn't be able to avoid it, but she might be able to stay out of range of the other, smaller one. Assuming it didn't breathe fire or something.

Of course, that assumed the books even attacked in the first place. Nellie had never actually seen an attack book herself. She'd read stories about them, and Flora had mentioned one she'd run across several years ago, but this was a first. She hoped they did attack. Wouldn't that be exciting!

Flora's headlamp bobbed back into view on the far end of the row. She flashed a thumbs up across the beam of her light and cocked her head to one side.

Nellie nodded in agreement. "Ready," she mouthed.

Flora whistled, high and sharp in the otherwise silent room. The books rustled as they came to attention, snapping toward her. She lit a match, staying just out of their reach.

Nellie darted forward as the books bristled at the flame.

The distraction helped, but it wasn't enough. The smaller book reared back as she passed, its pages fanning out like the hood of a cobra. Light flickered off of the glinting edges of its clasp, bared like fangs.

She couldn't spare it more than a passing glance as the larger volume roared with rush of turning pages and lunged off of its stand, ready to slam its heavy, studded binding shut on her like a bear trap.

Years of covering the children's section saved her. She caught the book midair, knocking it to the ground and dropping on top of it. It bucked under her, trying to squirm free, but she was faster. She pulled the twill tape free from her belt and tied the book closed without even having to look. "All clear over here," she called quietly as the book grumbled and twitched next to her.

The match went out. Flora dove low, sliding across the floor into the aisle before the books could react. "Are you okay!?"

Nellie grinned. "I'm fine. Feisty little things, aren't they? So what am I looking for again?"

"Anything would should tell the police to keep under extra watch, or that they shouldn't touch without precautions."

Easier said than done. She worked in public services, not acquisitions. Still, she didn't live completely under a rock. She'd heard of some of these titles, even if she'd never seen one herself. "This one, this one, and this one," she said, pointing at the volumes. "Any one of them is probably worth more than what I make in a year. And I wouldn't touch either of these two; rumor has it some of the copies are bound with highly toxic glue thanks to a disgruntled bookbinder." She leaned in closer, studying the spines. "I wouldn't touch these either. Don't ask me what, but something's off about them."

Flora jotted down notes as Nellie spoke. "Anything else?"

"Not that jumps out at me. Are we doing the other aisles?"

"Not unless we have to. Judging by the layout, this was what he wanted to protect most. Doesn't feel like enough protection for his focus though. Not given what we found everywhere else."

"Check the corner," Nellie said, jerking her head in that direction.

"Along the wall? There's nothing there. Finnie cleared it before the spiderweb got them."

"Let me see it anyway. There's something off about it."

"If you say so," Flora said. Nellie could almost hear the eye roll, but Flora humored her.

They skirted past the books guarding the stacks. Nellie could feel her heart pounding in her throat as they neared the shelves in question. There was something here. She was sure of it. She just needed to figure out what it was.

She stepped closer. Her fingers trailed over the spines, stopping just short of actually touching them. What was it that caught her attention? It wasn't just the books that stood slightly askew, though her librarian fingers itched to straighten them. There was something very wrong with the shelf; staring at it too closely made her stomach churn like a mild case of food poisoning. Her eyes watered as she squinted at the spines. It wasn't perfectly arranged, but no worse than any other well-used library shelf. She saw far worse every day at work, and none of them caused this sort of reaction. In fact, the shelf was completely and utterly unremarkable in all ways. Except for the bit where it made her want to be as far away from it as possible.

Could it be that simple?

On a whim, she pulled out her microspatula and nudged one of the crooked books. It didn't move, even though there seemed to be empty space next to it.

She jumped back just as something yanked the microspatula out of her hand. "It's a glamour!" she yelled, shoving Flora out of the way.

A bunch of staples flew through the air, burying themselves in the wood where they had just been standing. They scrambled back to the relative safety of the doorway.

"Marco and Altea should be done by now," Flora said weakly from somewhere under Nellie's shoulder. "You stay here; I'll go get them. No one's better than Altea at disrupting glamours. Finnie, you're on guard duty until I get back. Make sure Nellie doesn't get up to anything."

"I'll be good," Nellie promised. She wouldn't say no to a chance to sit down for a minute herself. Her knees were still a little shaky. Those staples could have caused real damage if they'd struck them in the face.

"Stay safe," Flora whispered, giving Nellie a quick kiss on her forehead before she disappeared down the hall.

"You too," Nellie murmured after her a few seconds too late.

The silence stretched out in the library. A grandfather clock ticked somewhere nearby; each second felt like a minute. She was certain she was about to be driven mad by it when she finally heard the return of footsteps and low voices. Flora bustled back in with two of her teammates close on her heels.

"Flora says you've got a glamour in here," the taller of the two newcomers said. "Show me where it is."

Nellie pointed to the corner. "I think it's the entire last shelf. Careful. Didn't get a good sense of what was under it, but whatever it is, it has a bite."

"Marco, with me," Altea ordered. "Back me up."

"Marco's our defense expert," Flora explained as she offered Nellie a hand up. "He'll keep whatever's back there out of Altea's hair until she gets us clear. I forgot to say it earlier, but good job. We all missed it."

"You learn what a frequented shelf looks like after awhile," Nellie muttered. "That wasn't it."

Across the room, Marco had summoned some sort of glowing barrier in front of the shelf. Altea stood behind it, her palms outstretched. The glamour shimmered and shifted as it fought her to maintain its form. Sweat beaded on her forehead as her voice rose.

Nellie bit back a surprised laugh. She'd been expecting some sort of poetic chant or obscure, arcane language. That was how it always happened in books.

"Don't trust everything you read," Flora murmured from beside her. "Sure, words have power, but the intent behind them's equally important. Focusing on the former sounds more impressive, but Altea's always preferred the more direct approach. She's damn good at it too. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it catches the glamours off guard."

Sure enough, the glamour finally flickered out of existence less than a minute later. The books that had been on the shelves disappeared. In their place, a heavy wooden door with a large brass knocker shimmered into view. The knocker reared back, spitting another shower of metal barbs toward the group. They clattered harmlessly off of Marco's shield, falling to the floor to join the many others already there.

"Finnie, we could use you for a minute if you're up for it," Flora called. "Think you can do something about that?"

Finnie stumbled as they got to their feet. They would have fallen into the danger zone if Altea hadn't reached out a hand to steady them.

"Careful," Marco warned. "Pretty sure there's poison on those barbs."

"Oh, like a snake!" Finnie smiled, as if that somehow solved the problem. Then they whistled low and long, like a snake charmer's flute, following it with a trilling hiss.

The door knocker thudded back against the door, returned to a seemingly inanimate state by Finnie's humming.

"How'd they do that?" Nellie whispered.

"They have a way with languages. Being an empath doesn't hurt either. Come on, let's go. Marco, keep the barrier up here. Altea, you're with me. Nellie, stay back, but you're with us too. If there's another book in there, we might need you.

Nellie grinned as she stepped around the barrier and over the scattered barbs. There was a certain thrill to being a part of the action rather than just fielding reference calls from three towns away. Sure, the monsters had tried to kill her, and used up half of the supplies she'd brought, but she wasn't done yet.

Flora gently eased the door open with the tip of her boot. She waited a long second, but when nothing jumped out at them, she nudged it open the rest of the way. "Marco, can we get a light?" she whispered.

A glowing orb materialized in Marco's palm, then floated free to bob ahead of them into the room.

The room on the other side of the door was tiny. Nellie knew they'd found what they were looking for the minute she saw it. Even without the crash course primer, she would've known it was important. A massive, red book perched on top of the only table in the room. Glowing runes and what looked to be a complicated spell circles covered the floor around it. The intricate tooling on the leather covers almost seemed to dance in the flickering light.

Nellie couldn't quite contain her gasp. The binding alone was a work of art. It was the sort of book you'd expect to see on display in a museum, or at the centerpiece of a fancy library, not hidden away in a tiny room in an abandoned castle.

"Think you can undo these?" Flora asked.

"Maybe. Give me a minute," Altea replied. "He's tricky, and cautious; he's woven all of the layers together, and probably added some traps for good measure too."

"Take your time," Flora murmured. "Better safe than sorry."

"I think I see what he's done. Clever, but not overly complicated if you're careful. Ease back this layer here just enough to get in, but don't drop the base hooked under it. Almost have it, just a little--Dammit! FLORA!"

The circle on the floor turned an angry red and began pulsing with an ominous light. The metal boss on the center of the cover opened like a giant eye, immediately locking onto them.

Nellie saw it before anyone else. A hair-thin wire glinted between the pages as the book threw itself open.

"Get down!" she yelled. She threw herself to the side, taking Flora and Altea down with her. She yanked the fire extinguisher from her belt as she fell, aiming it in what she hoped was the right direction and pulling the trigger. From the sound of angry flapping and flopping, she thought her aim was good, but she didn't dare uncover her head to look.

She kept spraying until the fire extinguisher was empty. When no explosions seemed forthcoming, she cautiously peered out from under her arms.

The book was a pathetic, soggy mess on the floor, surrounded by a pile of white foam. She felt a little sorry for it, but not sorry enough to regret what she'd done.

Altea coughed from under her. "What was that about?" she asked.

Nellie pointed to the wire sticking out of a pile of foam. "Booby trap," she explained. "I was just reading about them. Hollow out part of the middle of a book, replace it with your mechanism, attach the tripwire, and you have yourself an exploding book. The examples I read about didn't have much punch behind them; they were more practical jokes than anything. Didn't think we'd be so lucky here."

Flora inspected the book from a safe distance. "I'd agree with that assessment. Looks like this could've packed a punch if it went off in here. Good news is all the spells that were anchored here appear to have been cut off. That's one problem solved. Marco," she called back through the doorway, "do you still have that twice-spelled box? We could use it in here, and someone tell the police they'll want an explosives expert up here."

"I'm on it," Marco replied. "Looks like our friend on the door here was running off the focus too. Give it a wide berth to be safe, but it hasn't stirred."

"I'll leave that to you three," Flora said. "Nellie, you're with me."

With one last glance at the book, which Altea and Marco were now carefully moving to a wooden crate, Nellie followed her wife out into the hall.

"Look, about all of this," Flora began. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you _sorry_?"

"I put you in danger tonight. I shouldn't have dragged you all the way out here."

"Are you kidding? This was amazing!" Nellie said breathlessly.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!"

Flora narrowed her eyes. "You know, I never would have pegged _you_ as the one with the danger kink."

"The stories really don't do it justice," Nellie said. "When can I join you again?"

Flora laughed. "Why don't we wait and see how you feel about it tomorrow once the adrenaline's worn off?"

Nellie glanced down the hall. Now wasn't the time for unexpected company. "Has anyone ever told you how hot you are when you're brandishing a weapon? And diving around like an action heroine?"

"I don't think so. We try to discourage that sort of commentary within the crews."

"Then I'm telling you right now you are _really_ fucking hot like that." To emphasize her point, she leaned in and pulled Flora into a long kiss.

Flora kissed back with just as much passion. By the time they broke it off, they were both panting for breath.

"More?" Nellie asked.

"Not now," Flora gasped. "How about we put it on hold until we're back home."

"You'd better be quick then; I'll be waiting. Do I at least get one more kiss for luck?"

"Savor it, because it could be the last one for awhile."

They kissed long and hard, only breaking off when they hear the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

"Until next time," Nellie said as the police commissioner rounded the corner at the top of the stairs. Getting home couldn't happen soon enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Chocolate Box season! I do love any excuse to write about libraries and badass librarians.


End file.
